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• 08-28-2007, 7:10 AM

  MageUK Joined on 08-28-2007, 11:06 AM Posts 5

  Backing up multiple IIS Servers Reply Contact Hi This is just a simple question really, I am managing 3 Windows Server 2003 servers, 2 running IIS 6.0 hosting multiple websites, and 1 as a backup server that will be able to serve all of the web sites should the other servers fail. I am planning using 'iisback /backup' on the remote server to create the backup files, 'xcopy' to copy the files from the remote server to the backup server, and finally 'iisback /restore' to restore the backup files on the remote server. My question is this: If I restore the WEB1 backup, will it delete all of the current configuration (meaning only the WEB1 sites exist) and then if I run WEB2 it will do the same (namely only have WEB2 sites)??? If so, is there another way to do perform this type of backup????

  Tags: IISBackup

• 08-28-2007, 7:24 AM

  In reply to

  jeff@zina.com Joined on 09-26-2003, 10:43 AM Naples, FL, USA Posts 2,103

  Re: Backing up multiple IIS Servers Reply Contact It will behave as you expect.  But you could do the IISBACK and not restore until you need to use the server.  This isn't a fail-over backup so you won't have continuous access anyway, just a quicker way to get running if hardware dies. My preference for this would be a commercial backup, or even Windows backup, and restore the backup to the spare server, but your way works as well. Jeff Look for Wrox's new book Professional IIS 7 in your local bookstore, or order now at Amazon.com

• 08-28-2007, 7:29 AM

  In reply to

  MageUK Joined on 08-28-2007, 11:06 AM Posts 5

  Re: Backing up multiple IIS Servers Reply Contact Thanks, but this is the problem. In total there are 4 servers (but 1 is a database and active directory server), I need the 4th (backup) server to be able to take over the roles of ALL of these servers simultaneously. It is running all of the database services and is currently a domain controller for Active Directory, so it's doing half of the job, the rest is to get IIS running fine (Which it was; When I copied all of the site's configurations over manually). In the case of a new website being added to one of the servers, I need the backup server to have the new site on it (namely I would be running this iisback (batch script) on a nightly basis). I am currently backup up all of the servers' filesystems onto this backup server too, using rsync. The only thing that gets me is the IIS configuration. I was thinking about using Virtual Server 2005 to run the servers from their backed up filesystems but we don't have a license for that.

• 08-29-2007, 10:38 AM

  In reply to

  MageUK Joined on 08-28-2007, 11:06 AM Posts 5	Re: Backing up multiple IIS Servers Reply Contact Hmm somebody must have had this same scenario before. Nobody?? :(

• 08-29-2007, 2:00 PM

  In reply to

  jeff@zina.com Joined on 09-26-2003, 10:43 AM Naples, FL, USA Posts 2,103

  Re: Backing up multiple IIS Servers Reply Contact You're going to have problems with this.  To start, your SQL server is a DC, which means it has no local accounts.  Unless you changed the other web servers, they are running under local accounts for anonymous user and the ASP.NET process.  Which means a restore to the DC won't have the correct security.  The second problem will be your running IISBACK on each server and restoring three to one.  Last one wins.  No gurantees on what will work, if anything. You'd be far better off combining all sites onto one server and replic ate to the other two servers.  Use NLB to handle fail over.  You could script Robocopy to copy content, web sites may be a bit harder but you configure once and you're done. Jeff Look for Wrox's new book Professional IIS 7 in your local bookstore, or order now at Amazon.com

• 09-03-2007, 6:00 AM

  In reply to

  MageUK Joined on 08-28-2007, 11:06 AM Posts 5

  Re: Backing up multiple IIS Servers Reply Contact I'm sorry but there has to be somebody out there with the same situation as me People need to load balance their servers meaning that there will be sites spread across multiple servers, and they will probably have a backup server (at least one) if they have load balanced it, as they'll have the knowledge. Hence it must be possible to do this somehow. Is it possible to run multiple IIS instances? If so I could have one instance running per server that dies. Regarding the SQL Server, that's not an issue, it's only used for one internal applications, and there are no ASP.NET sites running from it.

  Tags: IISBackupmultiple servers

• 09-03-2007, 10:43 AM

  In reply to

  jeff@zina.com Joined on 09-26-2003, 10:43 AM Naples, FL, USA Posts 2,103

  Re: Backing up multiple IIS Servers Reply Contact You're not load balancing, which would help you out.  You're running two separate servers that you want to fail over to a single server.  I'm not sure you can even do this with any thrid party products. Load balancing would be if you ran all sites on all servers, each could take the load if any other fails.  To do this with a DC you have to change everything to domain accou8nts, DCs don't have local accounts. Jeff Look for Wrox's new book Professional IIS 7 in your local bookstore, or order now at Amazon.com